This invention relates in general to a medical laser video endoscope and more particularly to one in which the operating probe may be economically disposed of after each use.
Laser video endoscopes are known and in particular are described in Applicant's issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,740 issued on Jun. 16, 1992 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,997,868 issued on Feb. 14, 2006. The disclosures of those two patents are incorporated herein by reference.
The endoscopes such as the ones described in those two patents, are reused after autoclaving or other sterilization. Reuse occurs in large part because of the expense of the endoscope. The most significant expense factor is the image guide which has a large number of micron size optical fibers. In one endoscope 17,000 fibers were employed thereby providing a 17,000 pixel image.
The image guide currently used costs about $200.00. This is a major incentive for the use of the endoscope after sterilization rather than disposing of the endoscope after each procedure.
This expense factor means that as a practical matter the endoscope will be reused after sterilization rather than disposed of.
However, there is greater security from infection if the probe of the endoscope can be disposed of after each usage instead of being subject to the possibilities of human error in the sterilization process.
Accordingly, it is a key purpose of this invention to provide an endoscope design for which the cost is reasonable enough to permit and encourage disposal of the probe after each use rather then have recourse to sterilization.
It is a related purpose of this invention to provide this cost improvement in a design that maintains a probe design with which the surgeon is familiar and which also maintains the rest of the operating characteristics of the known laser video endoscopes.
It is a further aspect of this invention to provide a laser video endoscope which is less costly than are the current designs.